Saturday 28 May 2016 11:46, UK
Steven Kruijswijk lost the overall lead of the Giro d'Italia to Esteban Chaves after crashing on an action-packed 19th stage won by Vincenzo Nibali.
Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) overshot a corner and ploughed into a wall of snow on the descent off the penultimate climb of the day, the 2,744m-high Colle dell'Agnello, with about 54km to go.
The Dutchman was able to continue, but he fractured a rib in the fall and consequently laboured up the final climb to the summit finish at Risoul in France.
Up ahead, Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) started the final climb alongside Nibali (Astana), but he couldn't follow when the Italian attacked with 5.2km to go and finished 53 seconds down in third place, just behind runner-up Mikel Nieve (Team Sky).
However, Chaves moved into the pink jersey after Kruijswijk took another 4min 1sec to cross the line in 16th place, which wiped out his three-minute lead at the start of the day and relegated him to third in the general classification, 1min 5sec down.
Nibali has jumped to second overall, 44 seconds adrift of Chaves, after a remarkable improvement on his abject performances earlier in the race.
Having started the day 4min 43sec off the pink jersey, the 31-year-old now appears to be back in top form and has an opportunity to overhaul his deficit to Chaves on Saturday's 20th stage, which travels 134km from Guillestre to Sant'Ana di Vinadio and contains three category-one climbs and a category-three summit finish.
Nibali also leapfrogged Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the general classification, after the Spaniard was dropped on the Agnello and finished the stage 2min 14sec back in sixth, leaving him 1min 48sec down in fourth overall.
Kruijswijk was not the only victim of the Agnello descent, as Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), who had been fifth overall, also ran off the road and had to leave the race with a collarbone injury.
Stage 19 result
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 4:19:54
2 Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, +51sec
3 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +53
4 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +1:02
5 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff, +2:14
6 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, same time
7 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale, st
8 Georg Preidler (Aut) Giant-Alpecin, +2;43
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +2:51
10 Hubert Dupont (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
Selected other
16 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +4:54
General classification
1 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +44sec
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo,
4 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +1:48
5 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff, +3:59
6 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, +7:53
7 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +9:34
8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale, +12:18
9 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Dimension Data, +13:19
10 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +14:11
